Salmon Talks Put On Front Burner U.S., Canada To Appoint Representatives Who Will Report Directly To Clinton, Chretien

The United States and Canada took steps Wednesday to ease tensions over the breakdown of Pacific salmon treaty talks as the U.S. Senate condemned the weekend blockade of an Alaska ferry because of the continuing fish flap.

Canada’s foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, met with Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to discuss the weekend incident staged by British Columbia fishermen in the British Columbia port town of Prince Rupert. The fishermen were angered by what they believed are illegal catches of Canadian fish by Southeast Alaskans.

The Canadian-origin fish are not targeted by the Alaska fishermen but are caught as they swim among schools of pink salmon that are a mainstay of the Southeast Alaska fishing economy.

The treaty is supposed to help manage and conserve Pacific salmon stocks by dividing catches among fishermen in Alaska, Canada and the Pacific Northwest. It has broken down because of disagreements on particular harvest levels, and efforts to revive them have failed.

Axworthy and Talbott agreed to try to rekindle the talks by assigning someone from each country to meet with fishermen and other interested parties to identify common ground and ways to move forward on issues in dispute.

“The objective is to move this process quickly enough to make a positive difference in the 1998 salmon fishing season,” said State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns in a prepared statement.

But the process outlined Wednesday resembles efforts that have failed in the past. Canada walked out of the most recent negotiation session because the United States would not agree to binding arbitration.

At the Embassy of Canada, Axworthy told reporters that what’s different in this latest effort is that the so-far unnamed representatives will report back to President Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

“This is now being taken on by the president and the prime minister as a matter of high priority and accountability,” Axworthy said.

Axworthy and Talbott also agreed to “an open channel” between fisheries officials in what both countries described as an early warning system to prevent problems similar to what arose over the weekend when the Alaska ferry Malaspina was blockaded as it was trying to leave Prince Rupert.

The Senate Wednesday approved, 81-19, a resolution condemning the blockade as a violation of international law. The resolution urges President Clinton to “use all necessary and appropriate means” to compel the Ottawa government to prevent any further illegal or harassing actions against U.S. citizens.

Among actions outlined in the resolution are preventing Canadian vessels from tying up in U.S. ports except in an emergency, and prohibiting sports fish caught in Canada from being brought into the United States. Sport fishing by U.S. citizens in Canada is a big business.

Just moments before the Senate vote on the resolution, Axworthy met with Alaska Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski. After that meeting, Stevens said he remains disturbed over the Canadian government’s failure to respond promptly to end the weekend blockade.

“It warranted a severe response on the part of the Canadian government,” Stevens said.

Murkowski said that in their private meeting, Axworthy explained that Canadian police did not act more quickly to quell the protest because they didn’t want to incite violence and did not have enough law enforcement personnel on hand.

Axworthy was clearly stung by the Senate action, which he suggested was a needless escalation of the salmon dispute.

“The only solution is to try to make the treaty work,” Axworthy said. “We’re not going to get a solution if measures escalate.”

For the moment, however, both sides said they hoped the representatives will be named promptly so that the focus will shift from the blockade to reviving the salmon talks.